Thursday, April 4, 2013

Haier Portable Air Conditioner, 8000 BTUs, CPRB08XCJ

Haier Portable Air Conditioner, 8000 BTUs, CPRB08XCJ
I was in the market for a new air conditioner for my 12x15 bedroom, and upon reading the other customer reviews was sure that for the size, BTU, and price the Haier CPRB08XCJ 8000 was going to be the right fit for my needs. Upon setup and as I began using the product I ran into several issues.

The first was that the directions on setup and installation were unclear, even for such a seemingly simple process.

Secondly, while the air conditioner is said to cool a room up to 250-300 sq feet, it was struggling to cover my 180. And while it does seem to do a better job at dehumidifying than cooling, the amount of drainage from the collected water is unmanageable. The product was said to be mostly self-evaporating with a reservoir tank that will hold the excess. I was aware that the unit may need occasional drainage. I however am unable to run the unit for more than 3-4 hours before the tank is full and shuts itself off completely. Since I am using this in my bedroom there is no convenient way to drain the tank without either completely detaching it from its window fittings and rolling it into my bathroom, or allowing it to drain into pots or pans and carrying them to the kitchen sink. The other night, while I was sleeping, I attempted to just allow the unit to drain as it cooled into a spare aluminum casserole pan but the amount of water was so great that halfway through the night it had already begun overflowing. I'm going to try to find some rubber hose to fit to the drainage spout to put out my window, but without elevating the incredibly heavy unit I cant see how it will ever truly drain efficiently. I could forgive this extra inconvenience if the unit was effectively cooling my small room, but it is all around lackluster.

Thirdly I think calling this air conditioner portable is a little misleading. In order for me to move the unit into another room I need to unplug the unit from the wall, disconnect the exhaust hose, unscrew the window fitting to change the size and remove it from my window frame- then transport the unit to the other room and refit the exhaust hose and window fittings . It doesn't sound like too much, but the whole process takes about 15-20 minutes. i suppose by purchasing several of the panels that go into the window frame I could keep those preinstalled into other windows in the house, but with all of the extra expense and hassle I just don't think this air conditioner is worth the fuss.

I had also tried researching some troubleshooting methods, but Haier doesn't even list this product on their website.

Lastly, because I purchased the air conditioner sponsored by amazon but sold by this company called Beach Audio I cannot return the product to amazon. Beach Audio has a 30 day return policy that excludes certain items including air conditioners regardless if they are defective or not. It was my mistake for not researching this before my purchase, but I was told that their return policy was 30 days and I didn't see the need to investigate it further.

Product Description

The ultra-compact portable air conditioner has 3 modes of comfort; cool, dehumidify and fan. This capacity air conditioner is designed to a cool a 251-350 square feet area.

Haier Portable Air Conditioner, 8000 BTUs, CPRB08XCJ


Features

  • Cools and dries the air in a room up to 200 square feet
  • Uses R410A refrigerant with zero Ozone Depletion Potential
  • 900 watts; 115 volts; 3 fan speeds; LED push-button display
  • Includes remote, fully directional casters, and complete window kit
  • 24.4 x 17.9 x 13.1 inches; 56.1 pounds

No comments:

Post a Comment